Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 26 Jul 2015 - The DEA Overpays Informants Without Oversight An audit released last week by the Department of Justice provides fresh evidence that the Drug Enforcement Administration needs a thorough retooling that goes beyond the replacement of its director.

Republican & Herald, 25 Jul 2015 - President Barack Obama has seized on the righteous issue of mass incarceration for the final lap of his presidency. This one has a broad ideological and bipartisan coalition behind it, with Republican senators, governors and funders ( including the Koch brothers) linked with the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP. But Obama is not going far enough.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 22 Jul 2015 - In an article on physician David Casarett's evolving view of medical marijuana, it's noted that the Pennsylvania Medical Society opposed a Senate bill that would allow marijuana use by patients with any of 15 conditions, including cancer ("Doctor's Path of Discovery," July 19). The Hippocratic oath obligates physicians to do no harm. But don't physicians understand that withholding a treatment that can make unbearable lives bearable, by inaction, does harm and therefore violates their oath? Rod Meyers, Bryn Mawr, rodmeyers@aol.com - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

Tribune Review, 21 Jul 2015 - Pennsylvanians' addiction to heroin is the biggest drug problem in the state, a fact revealed not only in death statistics but also in state police drug busts. Pennsylvania State Police seized four times as much heroin in the second quarter of the year as they did the first, according to numbers released Tuesday. They seized more than 80 pounds of heroin worth more than $27 million between April and June, compared to just over 21 pounds between January and March.

Tribune Review, 21 Jul 2015 - Mike Fendya was leaving the scene after assisting a disabled truck when Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone drove up and gave the Carroll police officer a Narcan kit. And with it, he gave Fendya a legal blessing to administer the drug should the officer encounter a person dying from a heroin overdose.

The Citizens' Voice, 20 Jul 2015 - Anything you put in my mouth you're going to lose. - Andy Dufresne If you have seen the movie "The Shawshank Redemption," you may remember that line from the scene in which the character played by Tim Robbins is about to become the victim of a brutal prison assault. The film's narrator says it was the first of many assaults to come.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 13 Jul 2015 - The small community of Apollo - with a population of just over 1,600 - has a big drug problem that it's trying to shake. Local officials say the Armstrong County borough in the Kiskiminetas River valley has been plagued by a culture of drug use in recent years. As a result, it has seen an increase in drug-overdose deaths, a pair of drive-by shootings, an increase in robberies and a state police raid in February that uncovered a large-scale heroin ring.

Philadelphia Daily News, 13 Jul 2015 - Young African-Americans Lost in Cycle of Poverty, Violence and Drugs THE NUMBERS that drive Philadelphia prison-reform advocate Patricia Vickers on her mission aren't the big abstract ones. Not 36,000, the shocking recent estimate of young black men in Philadelphia either behind bars or dead before their time.

Tribune Review, 10 Jul 2015 - Gus DiRenna's addiction started with marijuana and beer in high school. He was popping pills at 18 and selling drugs between jail stints in his 20s and 30s. By age 40, the Whitehall resident was shooting heroin.